Jerry and Caroline

This is the first of several posts for today. :) I had to share this here today so I could save this image for a lifetime! If you follow me on Facebook then you've already seen it, but I really wanted it here today too.



It's our Elf on a Shelf, Jerry and he's hanging out with sweet Caroline today! I just love my 3 sweet boys on the right and beautiful Caroline on the left. All my amazing kiddo's together.... kind-of....

::Sigh::

Stay tuned for a little later today for my Christmas home tour and a blog swap gift in the mail!

Merry Christmas Eve ya'll!

Caroline's Newest Ornament

Yesterday I was greeted with the sweetest person on my doorstep!

Sorry Jorie, I totally swiped your newest Facebook picture :).

This is Jorie. She comes as the biggest blessing and Godsend! She is both our babysitter and most importantly a cousin. Her grandmother and Bobby's grandmother are sisters. Funnily enough Jorie's  grandfather and Bobby's grandfather were brothers! How cute is that, two brothers marrying two sisters! We are super related ... :).

In her sweet and thoughtful hands was this

I die...

So beautiful and sweet just like my precious girl!! I immediately started to tear up despite Jorie saying "No! Wait! Stop! Don't cry!" :) I just couldn't help it. It was such a thoughtful gift. It meant more to me that she remember our sweet girl at Christmas time than the gorgeous ornament in my hand (which don't get me wrong, I ADORE).  

Jorie, we are so thankful for you, love you, and are continually blessed by both your outer AND inner beauty!

Merry Christmas From The Muellers!

Merry Christmas to everyone! May the joy of this special holiday season fill your homes and warm your hearts! 

"Those Mueller's Sure Are Awesome Ice Skaters!"... Said No One Ever.

A couple of weeks ago we had the opportunity to go skating as a family with Graham's cub scout group. Graham and I have not ice skated in about 4+ years, Grady has NEVER ice skated, and I've never seen Bobby do it once (and we've been together like 13 years). That right there should adequately sum up our skating skillz (and I use those two words together very loosely).

This picture here describes how we rolled (or rather slid) a lot of the time :).

For the nine millionth time... please pardon the blurry pictures. My camera had the hardest time ever focusing. I was pretty much in motion the whole time (have you ever tried to stay still and not fall on ice skates all at the same time??) and so were my subjects :). Poor camera was soo confused.

Bobby skated with Grady while I skated with Graham (Griffin stayed at home with his Omi). We figured a one-on-one approach would be the best thing :). Since we were there around Christmas time they had Christmas carols playing and I was able to imagine myself here...

If only...

My boys taking a break in the hockey time out box (is that even what you call it??).

I was SO proud of them here! Neither one of them was holding onto the wall!!

Holding on for dear life...

Graham and I considered ourselves big successes when the last couple of laps neither of us held onto the handrail OR each other! :)

Graham even made a new friend while we were out skating! He kind of attached himself to us but he seemed really friendly and was a great skater so he was able to give Graham all kinds of advise and really cheered him on!

That's our new friend in the black and yellow jersey. I was going to get him and Graham's picture together but I didn't want to be that stranger creeper person taking random kids pictures... :)

Both Graham and Grady asked to go back soon so maybe we'll see Graham's new friend again.

We all really did have a great time together. We all laughed a lot at each others very sad skating skills, cheered each other on for a job well done at the end, and got great family exercise out of the deal! 

I see a lot of family skating in our future!

These Are A Few Of My Favorite {Christmas} Things!

Makes me feel like Oprah. :) Just without all her money. HA! 

This Christmas season I have collected quite a bit of things that have me super excited for this special season! I love to discover new and special things for both myself and my boys (and that includes my sweet hubby as well :).

We started out the Holiday season with mugs of hot cocoa. Yummy! My boys and I really love the mini marsh mellows and how they melt into foamy layer of delishishness.  OMG. I could drink it daily!!

My next fun find was this gorgeous necklace and earrings! I found them at the cutest local shop. I love how the necklace has both pink AND red in it. I now can wear it all season long with almost anything! The hot pink sweater was an awesome Old Navy find for only 15 bucks!

The next great find was these fun little flavored straws for the boys. Who wouldn't want to drink Chocolate Candy Cane flavored milk?? :)

 We are also loving our Elf on the Shelf, Jerry. We've had Jerry for a couple of years now but this is the first year that boys have really paid him much attention. They just love to get up in the morning and see who can find first where he moved overnight.  Only one night have Bobby and I forgot to move Jerry. OOPS! I had to do some pretty quick talking that morning to get myself out of that jam!

The next picture is how Bobby stays Holly and Jolly during the holiday season... :) 

A couple of weeks ago I found the cutest tree at Target! I have been looking around for a little tree to go in our dining room for the boys to decorate and this one ended up being perfect. It tops out at 6 feet but the boys were still able to reach most of it to do all their own decorating. I think it turned out super cute! (Sorry that the picture is a little blurry. My camera just couldn't seem to focus.)

+

The boys received several advent calendars this year. The two oldest each have a fun chocolate filled one to open. Grady's is the Santa one which is perfect as each little door has the traditional "Santa story" on it. Graham's is the advent calender that depicts the birth of Jesus. His, of course, has scriptures and the true Christmas story on the insides of the doors. I love that we can combine the whimsical secular side of Christmas as well as the religious "reason for the season" portion. 

The middle advent calender is their favorite! It's a Lego one that has a small figure or item to build behind each door. It made for a great St. Nick gift! Thanks Omi!

 I love that this year I was able to add a couple more pictures to my "Christmas Collection". I am so thankful to have all of these memories that the boys and I made together!!

I also found these super cute Christmas walls clings! I have always seen the window ones but recently discovered the wall ones. I always want cute Christmas stuff to hang on my walls  and these were perfect!

 What fun Christmas things have you discovered??

Mimi's Always Taking One For The Team

Mimi is my Momma and bless her sweet heart, she's always up for *almost* anything for the boys. She was very very brave and came to visit us during Thanksgiving. The boys all had such a fantastic time with her! I wish that she would just cave already and let us build her a Mother-In-Law suite :). Stop laughing Bobby...

Mimi playing "crack the egg" with Grady

 My poor mother trying to defend herself against the 4 year old onslaught...

Griffin wrangling...

 Mimi even taught Griffin the finer points of how to gnaw on a turkey leg :).

The Saturday after Thanksgiving Mimi humored us all and was the greatest sport of all and ventured out to the deer lease with us! We only stayed a couple of hours to hang out with the boys and then bring them back home with us. I think she really enjoyed it though! The leaves were just beginning to change so we had some awesome scenery to look at!

Griffin driving the Mule.

"I've got this Dad. You can let go now."

Mimi's first (and most likely last) Mule ride.

 We really did all have a great time just driving around and hanging out together!

Love you with all our hearts Mimi and can't wait to see you again soon!!!

Griffin Hates Santa

This was our first attempt this year at a super fun Santa picture!! Can you tell just how well it went? HA! We went to see Cowboy Santa in Gruene, TX. We do this every year and I just love to see how much the boys change from year to year. We had 4 pictures to choose from and this one was surprisingly the best. The other 3 might have worked just as well except that the professional Santa that we PAID to sit next to was not even looking at the camera! (and for the record I still feel like he's looking off to his right in this picture)

::Sigh::

Take number 2...

Nope. Griffin still hates Santa. Poor baby. Momma just kept having to torture him... Hopefully we'll look back on these years and all laugh!

The Santa at Bass Pro Shops suggested that I hold Griffin so they could get a better picture :).

While this might technically be a "better" picture it's still missing my sweet littlest boy. I'll take the crying Santa pictures any day!